Page 57 of Impossible Heir for the King

Niko had thought the old man had been dozing—apparently not. Apparently he too was watching for Maia. ‘Great.’

‘I’ve just taken the pain au chocolat from the oven.’ Stefan appeared in the doorway, looking pleased with the timing.

Yeah, Niko and Kailani definitely weren’t the only ones watching for the return of their queen.

Niko lifted his daughter into his arms and carried her down the beach to the water’s edge to greet her. It was a glorious day—above and before them the blue expanse stretched to infinity. There was no storm coming, only heat. He could see her sitting in the stern, her glorious long black hair gleaming in the late afternoon sun. Her smile flashed as she watched him encourage their daughter to wave at her.

She waved back and there was such a sparkle in her eyes Niko melted. The entire weekend stretched before them. They scheduled at least two whole weekends here each month to have completely to themselves. It was part of the balance they’d carefully worked to achieve together. Barefoot, Maia jumped into the water, not caring that the hem of her pretty dress was soaked even though she’d hitched it up.

‘I’m devastated you’re wearing a swimsuit,’ she whispered to him tartly, her smoky gaze drinking in his still-damp skin.

‘Couldn’t scare the staff. Or our daughter—you teasing wretch.’ But Niko could kiss her—passionately—loving the equally hot, hungry welcome of her mouth.

Then he laughed as their child wriggled restlessly on his hip and held out her arms to her mama.

‘I missed you,’ he muttered as he lifted their daughter into Maia’s embrace.

‘It’s been eight hours.’ She kissed Kailani’s sweet cheek.

‘Yeah, and I missed you for all of them.’

She wrinkled her nose. ‘Crazy man.’

‘Crazy in love.’ He slung his arm around her shoulders and drew her close and turned towards their beach home. His happiness right this second simply couldn’t be surpassed.

But Maia glanced behind her shoulder and called back, ‘Are you guys okay? Do you need help?’

‘We’re fine, thank you, ma’am.’

Niko had been so busy feasting his eyes on his wife he hadn’t even noticed other people disembarking. Now he frowned. He didn’t wantworkfollowing them here. That wasn’t the plan for this weekend at all.

‘What’s going on?’ he asked Maia.

‘I’m pre-empting your over-protectiveness.’ Maia smiled at him impishly.

‘My what?’

There was an odd light in her eyes now—a sheen that made him stop still right where he was, halfway up the beach with his feet bare and sandy. His plump toddler babbled sweetly, oblivious to the sudden tension filling her father.

‘I’m ensuring you’ll have all the reassuranceyouneed,’ she said.

Reassurance? For what? He turned and stared more closely at the cluster of people lifting boxes from the rear of the boat. He recognised one of the men. It was the doctor who’d cared for Maia when she was pregnant with Kailani. So he was here now because...?

Anticipation swept through him like a king tide. ‘Maia,’ he murmured throatily.

His wife simply smiled even more impishly.

He didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure this one out. But at the same time it was sogoodhe really didn’t want to be wrong. He tugged her closer so he could whisper, ‘Have you something to tell me?’

She giggled. He loved it when she giggled. When she teased him. When she looked at him like this—with love in her eyes and vitality oozing from every pore. He just gazed back at her. She’d never looked more beautiful.

And now his chest was so tight he couldn’t breathe. ‘You’ve already done a test?’

‘Just this morning. Then I rang the doctor and asked him to come here.’ She nodded. ‘He’s brought his fancy portable scanning machine with him,’ she said. ‘I didn’t want to confirm it—or see anything—without you and I also knew you wouldn’t want to wait. You’ll want all the information, immediately.’

Yeah, she was very right about that. But still he was stunned. ‘We’ve only been trying a short—’

‘And isn’t that just typical of your...stuff?’ she interrupted him with a laughing look.

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